Re: Fortson & Moves

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> One thing interesting as someone else mentioned is why is Fortson not =
> given more minutes ?  Pitino has from now until the trading deadline in =
> a couple weeks to :
> 
> Sign him to an extended contract, which I am not sure I would on what I =
> have seen so far

You can't sign a rookie contract player to an extension mid-year. The
deadline happened during the offseason. Last year was an exception
(with Potapenko) due to the lockout. So the only options are the two
you list below:
 
> Trade him to get something in return
> 
> do neither and chance losing him to free agency, then the Mercer trade =
> really looks bad.
>
> You would think you would want to see as much as possible to be able to =
> make this decision, which could be a double edged sword if he plays =
> poorly lowering his trade value.
> 
> Fortson & Ellison for Mo Taylor  & Skinner ?
> AW & Barros for Alvin Williams & McGrady

I'm always amused by your trade scenarios because you don't stop at just
one blockbuster trade. Actually this is milder than some of the other
ones which involve seven or eight players =). 

Trading Walker for McGrady is a horrible idea in my opinion. Well, it 
doesn't work under the CBA trade rules, but even if it did... You are
more likely to lose McGrady in free agency than Fortson, frankly, because
he is probably one of the targetted players for Orlando and Chicago.
The only way I'd even consider acquiring him would be a sign and trade
to guarantee that he's locked in with the team. If Antoine gets blasted
for immaturity, I can't imagine what McGrady would experience here, unless
the fans cut him a lot of slack for being so young. 

Personally, at this stage in the rebuilding process, I wouldn't be that
interested in trading one of our two current stars for potential, even
though McGrady seems to have a ton of it. 

I don't know if acquiring Mo Taylor makes sense if the reason for trading
Fortson was that Antoine is going to be the 4. He's also asking for more
than he's proven that he's worth.

Alex